A Practical Guide for Technical Recruiting

The CTO’s Hiring Framework: AI & Data Engineers

The Proven System Behind Hundreds of High-Stakes Engineering Hires

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Hiring top-tier AI or data engineers is high-stakes—and high risk.

The wrong hire doesn’t just slow you down. It breaks roadmaps, drains budget, and adds hidden complexity to already difficult builds.

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At Cloud Employee, we’ve hired hundreds of engineers for some of the most demanding technical teams on the planet. We’ve made mistakes, found patterns, and built what works into a repeatable system.

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This guide is that system.

A Practical Guide for Technical Recruiting
In this download you’ll get

How to Spot Senior AI & Data Engineers, even those without traditional credentials

Role Frameworks: clear benchmarks for AI, Data, Automation & No-Code roles

7 High-Signal Screening Questions to reveal true technical depth

Fast-Filter Frameworks: shortlist faster, with less risk

Tech Stack Cheat Sheets: what tools really matter in today’s market

Trusted by 500+ companies
97% retention rate of 2 years
300+ Devs, engineers, experts
Save up to 75% of hiring costs
Smart Hiring Starts Here

Turn AI & Data Hiring from a Bottleneck into a Competitive Advantage

This is the real-world framework used by high-performing CTOs to hire smarter and avoid painful mis-hires. If you’re scaling your data or AI function and want to do it right, don’t start from scratch.

Shortlist with confidence

Filter for real engineering depth

Avoid slow, costly hiring mistakes

Don’t just take our word for it

The Best Companies Source Talent with Cloud Employee

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We spent four months trying to hire in the US. We engaged Cloud Employee and had two full-time developers in Argentina onboarded in one week.

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The guys have been working with us for two years and we're now up to a team of six.

Mark Whitfield
Managing Director
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Seb and the team take great care of their staff, and you can see their focus on development and quality in the candidates they present to you. They're a reliable resourcing partner who genuinely understand the nuances of good staff augmentation.

Dennis Gorya
Founder, Partner & CEO
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Our new developers were able to hit the ground running, we've worked with them for over two years now, and they are truly part of our team.

Alison Whittle
Product Delivery Manager
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Working with Cloud Employee developers is great, because they're not afraid to push back. They're proactive, they're positive, and they feel like part of our team.

Doran Eskinazi
Head of Engineering
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Working with Michael, our developer from Cloud Employee, is great - he's dedicated and very skilled. Michael's embedded right into our team, really fits into our working culture, and we just wish he lived closer so we could have him in office from time to time!

Richard Hall
Director

Did You Know?

While only 10% of developers look at job boards, 80% are open to new roles?

6 out of 10 developers leave a company in the first year?

Hiring the wrong person can cost up to $240,000, according to the US Department of Labor?